First Minister Peter Robinson has gone on the offensive against critics within his party who, DUP sources say, have been trying to undermine his leadership.
In the wake of dropped DUP minister Edwin Poots saying that Mr Robinson would stand down before the next Assembly election in 2016, and possibly even within months, Mr Robinson today attacked those in his party with the "strategic vision of a lemming".
As the Northern Executive today tries to grapple with how to deal with budgetary cuts of about £200 million, Mr Robinson was forced to face the distraction of internal divisions within the DUP that have finally surfaced at public level.
When doorstepped today Mr Robinson did not name Mr Poots, who on Tuesday was replaced as DUP health minister by South Down MLA Jim Wells, but it was very clear that he is furious at comments Mr Poots made yesterday.
Mr Poots said it was “public knowledge” from a recent Belfast Telegraph interview that Mr Robinson was planning to stand down sometime before the 2016 Assembly elections - even though the DUP leader made no such statement to the newspaper. It forced Mr Robinson to say he had no plans “now, nor before the Assembly election” to quit politics.
Mr Robinson further demonstrated his anger today. "Even in the Democratic Unionist Party, it's clear there are some people who are so puffed up by their own importance, people who have the strategic vision of a lemming, and we have to deal with those people," he told the BBC.
"They won't take us off course. It is very clear where the party's direction is, and the party has choices to make - it can follow people down a road to destruction, division within the party and the consequences that would be paid for that, or they can move ahead and do what we said in our election commitments of taking Northern Ireland forward," he added.
“That’s a clear choice, but I can’t stop people from making comments,” said Mr Robinson. “All I can do is continue to raise issues with the party officers, they have indicated their support for the strategy I have outlined, and let’s see what the people have to say.”
